Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
As a printing apparatus typified by an inkjet printing apparatus, a printing apparatus coping with printing media of relatively large sizes such as A1 size and A0 size has been proposed. A printing apparatus of this type includes an air communication section which makes an ink storage section, such as an ink tank storing ink, communicate with air. The printing apparatus is configured so that the ink liquid level in the air communication section becomes lower than the ink discharge face of a printhead in the direction of gravity. By this water head difference method, the inside of the printhead can be kept at a negative pressure. For this reason, if the printing apparatus is greatly tilted, ink sometimes leaks from the air communication section.
After installing a printing apparatus, if the printing apparatus needs to be transported to another place (also called secondary transport), it may be greatly tilted. There has been proposed a measure to drain the entire amount of ink in the printing apparatus before secondary transport (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-313829).
In general, an inkjet printing apparatus includes a suction device which sucks ink from a printhead in order to maintain the printhead performance. When draining ink in the printing apparatus before secondary transport, this suction device can be used to automate the work. However, ink drained by the suction device cannot be reused in general. If the entire amount of ink in the printing apparatus is drained, a large amount of ink is wasted. If air is mixed in an ink supply path when draining ink in the printing apparatus, ink is not discharged in use.